


Audience

by Aurumite



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: Drabble, F/M, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-22
Updated: 2015-05-22
Packaged: 2018-03-31 17:29:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 624
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3986650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aurumite/pseuds/Aurumite
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lon'qu looks at Olivia just a little too long, from the way Basilio claps him on the shoulder. Blast. Caught.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Audience

**Author's Note:**

> For a tumblr prompter requesting Lon'qu/Olivia.

He looks just a little too long, from the way Basilio claps him on the shoulder. Blast. Caught.

“You eyeing my girl?” he asks.

Basilio has all but adopted Olivia, despite the fact that he only has perhaps fifteen years on her. Everyone knows it. She is his darling pet, his family. He keeps her suitors away with a stiff hand because she is shy. He indulges her every wish in turn for her entertainment of his guests. She tells him her secrets and he keeps them.

“No, sir,” says Lon'qu.

The hand on his shoulder squeezes painfully hard before it lets go.

“Shame,” says Basilio. That alone is enough to make Lon'qu flinch.

“Do not tease me.”

“Who said I’m teasing? One day she’ll be too old to dance, and then what?”

“Her Khan will provide for her.”

Basilio snorts. “By the time she can be convinced to stop, I’ll already be dead, I’m sure. I’d prefer it if she had someone else to look after her, too. She forgets to do it for herself.”

“I’m your man in all things,” says Lon'qu. “Except this.”

“Can you blame me for hoping it’ll be somebody I can trust?”

“It’s up to her. Not you.”

Basilio only chuckles. “I’m going to find Flavia. I know she’s jealous; her dancer isn’t half as good.”

Another clap on the shoulder and he’s gone. Lon'qu clenches his teeth when he realizes the absence is purposeful, just more of Basilio’s blessing. Without the big man around, he can’t find the restraint to keep his eyes from wandering back to her.

Olivia is beautiful, so beautiful it terrifies him. Everything about her seems dainty, magical, and powerful all at once: the soles of her feet as they beat against the ground, the rolling of her hips, the shapes her wrists and hands make as they follow her movements, like delicate trails of smoke left after blowing out a candle.

How do women manage it, he wonders. What about her is so feminine, so repulsive and compelling at the same time? Is it just the shape of her waist he doesn’t want to think about? The smell of her perfume when she passes by?

Lon'qu wants to touch her. Just for a moment, just the edge of her palm or the ends of her pale hair. That frightens him too. He would brush it away as desire, a natural and unfortunate circumstance of his birth, but he can’t. Not after all the little smiles he’s had to tuck away after seeing her smile. After a performance she feels proud of or a satisfying practice. Her mouth makes a fascinating shape, small and sweet like the wedge of a mandarin orange. He can’t ever bring himself to return the gesture, but he nods at her from Basilio’s side so that she doesn’t feel ignored.

He’s been staring so long, so lost in his thoughts, that he feels a jolt when their eyes meet. Lon'qu wants to wrench his gaze away but can’t manage it. Had she felt his stare? Was that not impossible? Could it be that she was thinking of him, and looked to Basilio’s box to see if he was watching?

Foolish, Lon'qu chides himself. She was probably just checking to see if her patron approved of the new routine she had been practicing so hard. And yet, now that it’s him she’s looking at, her lips turn up into that timid but genuine curve.

It’s ridiculous to think that in a room packed full of people, with her spotlighted on the stage below, Lon'qu finally feels comfortable, but it’s true. For just that slight moment it feels like they’re entirely alone. And so, just this once, he smiles back.


End file.
